Howdy all. Time to look back and examine my diary and see what I was doing on this very day but a few years back. 2011 was a long year, mostly away leaving early March. After a quick stop in Singapore I went to Vietnam, and after visiting Ho Chi Minh City and Dalat I moved on to the seaside town of Nha Trang.

Nha Trang is a destination without a lot of things to do except chill and relax. The beach is okay, although not the greatest beach you will find, and the town buzzes a lot and there are loads if restaurants and bars. It’s a Russian favourite – you find a lot of Russians visiting there although I don’t recall seeing any in other parts of the country, perhaps there are a lot of package deals. It’s interesting in Nha Trang, the bars are not allowed to spread out onto the street, but they do with tables under umbrellas. The police would sweep past and all the bars would rush out and bring everything inside only to put it back as soon as they went.

So I picked up my diary to see what I did this day. It was quite a lazy day, I didn’t see anything really, and I had obviously met some people there who I confess I have no recollection of today. But it made for interesting reading. Here is the ‘edited’ version!

Hello! I’m somewhere over the rainbow in City Pizza, doing the diary, the lift music wafts…  Sleep was OK I think, up after 11 AM shower is hard to get right temperature wise what can I say so far it’s lunchtime and not much has happened. The burgers are pretty darn tasty here though lazy day ahead!

I arranged my Dom at the why not bar at 8 – so much has happened. The post office above which Dom is staying had some postcards so I bought 1. I met a German there with bandages over his arms and legs motorbike accident then Dom popped in briefly.

Brian was out the front of La Cabanon and so I had a drink with him and a guy called Phil. Brian had to go make a phone call I think he doesn’t like me. Phil had some interesting stories apparently an Australian murdered his Vietnamese wife, cut her up stuffed her in the toilet and ran away with the kids because she had a Vietnamese boyfriend. She wasn’t found for six days which was two days ago. Crikey!

Onto the beach when it was 5:00 PM or so. Hive of activity football being played strong but pleasant sea breeze I sat down and tried to read some Harry Potter with no success. Lay down and did the iPod thing for a little while, very good. Kids came up and asked me for money just asked money once with that? Does that actually work on some foreigners? Walked around the restaurant district proper there are so many so much competition I wanted to eat at this German place but it was so small the only available table was high and I would have to sit on barstools.

This Texas place looked damned good but was very expensive the owner, a Texan tried to put the hard word on me the beef is imported from the US that cannot be cheap!

Russian place offering 10% off but a smattering of peanut dishes put me off so I ended up here in ‘Olivia’ – an Italian place. Tempted by a bolognaise pizza smells really good in here garlic bread as well thin base crust pretty decent would have liked more sauce some serious diary writing today and the day is not finished yet. 45 minutes till I need to meet Dom!

A police truck came up and we all had to scuttle inside this coincided with the Koreans and Chinese couple rocking up a quick hug hello and we were rushed inside they had all disappeared.

We shuffled over into the red sun bar for a few more drinks we had free mojitos at both pennies with a beer although Dom had a couple of extra beers.

We played pool and I won, then these two blonde surfie aussie’s challenged us. They won the first game although I think we were ahead for a bit. The second they were all over us and fouled on the black the third gave game was a glorious triumph I held my nerve to pocket the 13 and black and we won 2-1 they were shattered they had taken it very seriously as Dom said when I potted the 8 there was silence.

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It’s strange when you travel you meet some people who take playing pool so seriously. You’re travelling, you’re at a random bar, who cares who wins? I must admit I do not usually engage in a ‘bar crawl’ when I travel (and definitely not at home) but I guess this was nine years ago and I was a different person… still very rare sort of evening.

Thanks for popping by – take care and may the Journey Never End!